Malt Liquor or Cheap Wine of Choice?

Whether it's a slow night of the week, or you just want to kick it dirty and hood, what do you spend your three or four dollars on at the gas station?

For me; I like to maximize flavor, content, and value for my dollar, and I think MD 20/20 drinks fit the bill. Relatively smooth flavors, 13% abv, and three dollars where I grab them. Sometimes a Bud Ice will do, but MD drinks keep things chill without giving me that malt-beer mouth feel.

I'm a Steel Reserve man. I drink 40's a lot. I can really like beer across the whole spectrum but hard to beat the bang for the buck and I can easily get in a "shitty beer" mode, even if I can love the nicest stuff out there. I live in NC too where there is a ton of great beer around.

If I'm going cheap I pick up a six pack of 16oz of Old English.

I'll sometimes get a bottle of 14 Hands merlot or Cupcake moscato if i'm looking to curl up with a good book for a night.
I can usually find a bottle of either for around $8 at unclaimed freight

@monkeyman04: They have them in six-packs? Never seen that!

@artisanbreads: I used to do Steel Reserve, but boy does that shit taste like garbage when it gets even slightly warm.

You are so right but that's why you pop it in the freezer ASAP.

King Cobra
Bud Ice is fine too

Honestly I'm not too picky if I'm buying cheap alcohol.

@ghost_cat: There is one place that I know of in Vancouver, WA that sells Old E in a six pack. I'll take pics of it the next time I get one.

Been a long time now, but I think it was Schlitz Malt Liquor (the Bull) that I could get down, and it didn't poison me like Old English 800. I don't even know if they make it anymore, I stay with cheap light beer (Natural light). But back in college and broke, 40 ounces of that was my choice.

Steel Reserve.

@artisanbreads: steel reserve is the devil and also satan, but yeah sure.

Im not in high school anymore, nor am i homeless, so i drink high end tequila.

Never been a fan of malt liquor. Busch Light, Tecate or Pabst Blue Ribbon is my go-to cheap beer, but I haven't bought any of those outside of bars that offer good combo deals with a shot of decent whiskey in a while. Thrifty drinking for me beer-wise is an $8 New Belgium or Boulevard six pack (or a bottle of cheaper good whiskey/tequila like Old Overholt or Sauza).

My girlfriend has been buying a LOT of Bota Box wine lately, usually about $18 for 5 liters (roughly four bottles) and that wine is pretty damn good. I can't taste the difference between an $8 and $80 bottle of wine too well anyway, but it's been a game changer compared to $8 for a single bottle of Robert Mondavi Cab.

I can't justify drinking malt liquor unless i'm chowing down on a whopper. For some reason drinking garbage and eating garbage at the same time go hand in hand to start a night off right for bad decisions. Colt 45 had grown on me more since Old English decided to move to "shatter proof" bottles for their 40oz.

Embraced the darkness just last night. The devil has never done me wrong.

As far as wine goes, 2 buck Chuck is pretty good (if you have a Trader Joe's anywhere nearby). Otherwise, liquor seems to be the winner in the price department. You can almost certainly get a 750ml bottle of *something* for 5 bucks, which is the equivalent of 15 regular size beers. That's roughly comparable to a $1 forty.

None of that crap for me. Give me a Beck's or Heineken Lite or a vodka martini with Grey Goose. At my age the cheap shit hurts too much the next day.

@mrroach: Hmmm, I haven't thought about that, but remembering my high-school days of drinking that awful cheap shit doesn't make me want to try it again.

If I want a cheap relaxing drink it won't be alcohol. Drinks are a semi-expensive treat for me. I bet there are some cheap wines I could drink, but any time I've tried it's not been great.

I have nothing to add here. Can't mix in this subject as I simply don't drink any of this.

On a closely related subject though, I think Corona is fucking fantastic. People say it isn't really beer, that's how crappy it is. Which makes sense because I generally don't like to drink beer at all, or drinking alcohol that much for that matter. But there's something about having a date and being forced to sit into a chair in the hot sun and getting a cold as balls Corona with a lemon wedge that makes me happy.

Wineberry 2011 Château Moulin de la Roquille (Bordeaux) - This stuff is a little pricy, when compared to other boxed wines, but I might prefer this to any more expensive bottled wines that I have tried. Despite the price warning, you are still buying a boxed wine and, as far as value is concerned, you are basically getting four bottles of wine for the price of one.

I'm old now and cheap booze just tears the ass out of me. Even if I could still handle it, my favorite cheap forty isn't even on the market anymore.

There was always shit floating around in there, but I think that just made you drunker.

Shloer.

It's not alcoholic! It's not even wine! But it's the classic stand in.

Schooner Cream, 70Cl of heavenly fortified wine coloured ethanol, 15%, only 5 quids at Tesco.

@zorban_zorban: Oh shit, what's that??

@oldenglishc: never seen that before!

Wine ain't cheap here and malt liquor's never been my thing.

For G? Royal Reserve Canadian Rye Whisky. You can get a mickey for damn cheap and it's a perfect drink on ice.

Mickeys.

Boone's Farm is a classic "wine" that is super cheap and gets the job done.

When I want a cheap alcoholic beverage I go for the Bud Light Beeritas. Mango and Lime are my favorite.

This is so easy. MAD DOG 20/02

Buckfast! It used to be made by monks so it's medicinal. Honest :)

Rex Goliath wine is my go-to. Usually the moscato.

This classic

Always feels good walking to a party with one of these bad boys in my bag, about to turn tf up

It always amazed me that there's actually less of a drinking culture in the US than there is over here in Australia. I'm not sure if it has something to do with a more religious population, or what, but generally it seems like our alcohol is way more expensive than yours is. I've never seen a bottle of malt liquor in my life and most of the syrupy strong shit you're talking about is pretty heavily taxed.

ALTHOUGH, after thinking about it for a bit. I'm pretty sure we're the original home of the "goon bag", and you can get a 5L cask of Coolabah Fresh Dry White for about 12 bucks. Which is way cheaper than I ever remember from my shitty-wine-drinking days. For some reason cask wine has always been taxed lower than most other kinds of alcohol so it's still pretty cheap.

Also, on the topic of goon. Do non-Australians know about "Goon of Fortune?" It's basically the only drinking "game" that I've ever truly appreciated.

@mvhvtmv: Ohhhhh lord the box wine, that's the good stuff.

I think franzia is the cheap shit around here. For a past birthday I pulled the bladder out of the bag and walked around my house pouring it into people's mouths. Felt like Dionysus walking around and blessing drunken partygoers with my big wine bag

@mvhvtmv: "Goon bag" is something I will remember forever, thank you.

@ghost_cat: Here's what I was talking about.

This was the signature move of a lot of the girls I went to college with at tailgates before the football games.

@monkeyman04: I have not seen those before. Cool!

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You just mean you think we like cheap alcohol? I don't know the numbers but Americans love their drinks and there's plenty of focus on more expensive alcohol as well. "Craft beer" as they call it has exploded. There are breweries all over my city of Raleigh NC and plenty of outstanding beer. There is a just about every kind but the area is known especially for stouts, which I love. I just like cheap beer as well and sometimes I'm on a budget. It's all good.

If I go out, almost everyone is drinking beers that cost $5 and up or cocktails that cost $10 and up. I know a lot of beer nerds and there are bottle shops all over town focused on it. We also have the bar with the most on draft beers in the entire world, last I heard: Raleigh Beer Garden.

I drink malt liquor and kind of do proudly because I'm an idiot but most people I hang out with think I'm a dummy for doing so and hate it so yeah.

Bud Ice!! Or bust out the natty light. I think Lone Star Beer may just be in Texas, but that's a good cheap one.

Well those are more beers but all the same, cheap stuff that aint bad

@artisanbreads: Nah, I just mean super cheap alcohol is more readily available in the US than it is over here. We still have cheap alcohol, but our cheapest stuff generally doesn't compare with your cheapest stuff. In my city a 'cheap' beer at a bar is $10+, and if you want nicer stuff it's more like $15.

We have a much higher minimum wage than you guys do, but even still our cheap alcohol is usually proportionately more expensive. What I meant is that here in Australia there's a very big culture of drinking, not just amongst the youth or the poor, but all ages. Of course in the US you guys still have problem drinking, but it's not quite the same as it is over here.

EDIT: I recognise that the US still has a high rate of binge drinking, but it's just my perspective from not living in America it doesn't seem to be quite as much of an explicit cultural thing. There's still binge drinking from all levels of society, but it doesn't seem to be quite so ingrained in your cultural identity, if you know what I mean? To be fair though, I admit I could be totally wrong.

@mvhvtmv: Interesting. I can't claim to know too much about Australia so I don't know the exact comparisons.

As far as binge drinking I think you are a bit off though. I mean I did go to one of the premier party schools in the country in UMass Amherst but it was wild there. Tiny young girls drinking two pre-ban Four Lokos at pregames and being a mess afterwards, funneling rum, and at my house we hosted an annual Beer Olympics that had a first event case chug as team where everyone threw up afterwards (it was the right move considering how much beer there was to drink after since it was only the opening event). My two roomates chugging solo cups filled with the cheapest vodka (I advised against this) until no lie blood started pouring out of one of their noses mid chug.

It was a dumb time but it was some serious bing drinking. Personally I also did a lot of underage drinking in highschool. Of course I can't say how it compares exactly. But if you were to go to an American Football tailgate you would see some insane binge drinking and a lot of resulting shit shows from grown ass Americans. There is a group at one I know of that all wear black shirts and tailgate with the explicit goal of blacking out.

I have a British friend and to compare that my notes are that he wanted to drink more often throughout the week, like everyday after work, and that is not that common in America. I think most save up for binges.